


My Name is Ariel

by Dragonfly



Category: The Tempest - Shakespeare
Genre: Gen, Podfic Welcome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-24
Updated: 2012-12-24
Packaged: 2017-11-22 05:51:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/606493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonfly/pseuds/Dragonfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ariel's doom is to learn of Men and to love one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Name is Ariel

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mellish](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mellish/gifts).



_I’m made of light and air, fire and night, sky and wave.  I’m kin to the frothy sea, to the whisper of leaves.  Freedom is my food and drink, captivity my only pain._

_I fear no human.   Though they are many, as sand on the world’s strand or stars in the sky, they have no power to bind me.  T’was a greater power ensnared me, a hag on her exiled isle, her monstrous son her comfort and my pain.  Where I had been light, she burdened me dark and taught me her hate.   She poured it on me with the weight of the sea.  It drowned me until I could serve no more; it bore me down.  Freedom my only release for the pain of this captivity, but where is the cure for the ague of hate?_

_My torment was unending.  Left bound in the wood of the tree, I feared eternal agony.  Freedom is the breath of my life; I was stifled but could not die.  One hundred four and forty times I felt the moon wax and wane, but never heard aught but my own moans._

_Then came my master, a man of power, worn with care and sadness.  Grief to grief, he followed the song of my moans and vowed to split the tree if I would give him my name. My name!  The means by which I could be bound again.  Unmade by hate and starved to be free, I gave it to him._

"My name is Ariel, and I want to be free."

_I limped from my prison, weak but resigned.  Freed from one bond, now slave to another.  He bade me follow.   I feared to take up once more the burden of loathsome tasks forced on me by Sycorax, the hag.  Instead he bade me play with his little child.  Invisible, I plaited her hair and set her wood dolls to dancing.  Her childish laugh, unsought, laid balm upon my wounded spirit.  It was then my master first loved me._

_Oh joy of love unbounded!  My strength revived, my spirit healed, all by the rays of my master's love.  Said I freedom was my food and drink?  I've found now different sustenance.  Enthralled, I learned his heart.  Singed by the hate I found within, I recoiled, but sorrow to sorrow I clove.  I served him, unknown to his child and to the hideous Caliban, whom he fostered with care.  He flourished in his island domain, all with my help.  His powers grew as mine did._

_When I obey him he rewards me with affection and praise.  Here, then, is the cure for the wounds of Sycorax’s hate._

_I love him. I would serve him freely, were I free to serve._

_But he is all I know._

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much to my talented beta, Devo!


End file.
